Wild Women Walkabout

13/07/2024

Oh lordy, it was a tough walk this morning!
My plan was to add an extra 2km, going up from 7km to 9km. But by the 3km mark, I knew that wasn’t going to happen as pain was setting in too early🤦🏻‍♀️

So I adjusted my planned route and reset my target to add just 1km, to get from 7km to 8km. I was determined to pace myself, walk slowly and carefully to push that extra 1km in … and it worked✅ 👣 🐾

Lexi 🐕 and I walked from Gregory St, along the Strand and up over the Jezzine & Kissing Point headland, to get some small hill work in. Then I added in the extra 1km by doing a double lap around the Rockpool, before continuing back along the Strand to Tobruk, where we stopped for a coffee break, then back to Gregory St, 8kms done👍

I was moving very slowly at the end but I was moving👍🤣. Fibromyalgia pain had set in over most of my body. My good (new) hip had only just started to ache, so that was okay👌 . But, my biggest problem was my other hip now called my “bad” hip🤦🏻‍♀️ It was giving me loads of grief and twisting my knee inwards so that was also hurting heaps and slowing me down to a pathetic limp 😠

The positives from this morning outweigh the pain:
✅ Added 1km to my distance and got to 8km
✅ Saw an amazing sunrise
✅ Spent quality time walking Lexi
✅ Got lots of fresh air
✅ Enjoyed a lovely coffee and cronut. The message on the lid of my coffee was “Make Today Count❤️” and I feel like I’ve achieved that.
Sally Flair Holly Nadene Ellison
Ann Hewitt WWW

30/06/2024

I took a big step up today increasing my distance from last Sunday’s 5km to 7km💥 and included the Jezzine / Kissing Point headland. That’s a 2km increase PLUS HILLS … woohoo 🙌 and just 9 weeks post hip surgery. I’m soooo pleased with that.
Nadene Ellison Sally Flair Holly

View my hike: Strand, Jezzine & Tobruk

30/06/2024

What a GREAT way to start the day … and at the end of our walk my coffee cup told me so. That’s good Karma coming in😊

I took a big step up today increasing my distance from last Sunday’s 5km to 7km💥 and included the Jezzine / Kissing Point headland. That’s a 2km increase PLUS HILLS … woohoo 🙌 and just 9 weeks post hip surgery. I’m soooo pleased with that.

That’s the same distance as walking from the Strand to the top of Castle Hill via the Goat Track. Now I know I can do the distance, I just need to work a bit more on hills before I tackle the big one🤪

Lexi 🐶 was a perfect companion today. I had her on the “hands free” lead around my waist and I walked with my trekking poles. She hardly ever pulled me off course and going up the steps at Kissing Point she stopped and waited for me as soon as the lead got tight … she’s a good trekking mate👍🐾
Nadene Ellison Sally Flair Holly

21/06/2024

This morning I headed to the Strand at 6:00am to catch the sunrise … but I missed out because it was hidden behind clouds🙃

Never mind, Lexi and I had a lovely walk and stopped for chats and puppy plays with several dog walkers🐾. And, a lovely surprise to see an old workmate, which was a chance for a nice catch up.

I’ve been hovering around 4km walks for a few weeks now and decided my new hip is ready for a bit more exercise. So this morning I stepped it up to 5km … no problem 😉

We stopped at Tobruk Kiosk for my coffee break and to watch the world go by. They always put a little effort into putting a smile on their customers faces.

Sometimes it’s the little things that make you smile and set you up for a nice day😊

15/06/2024

Finally had the chance to catch up with my best walking buddy this morning and we were treated to a beautiful sunrise🌅 With me having been in hospital and then recovery mode and Nadene being in hippy music festival mode, it’s been a long time between walks. Soooo good catching up this morning and refreshing ourselves on lots of news. We added in about 1/2km and a small incline to what I have been walking during the week, so I’m very pleased with that👍. Thanks for our fun catch up and walk Nadene Ellison

07/06/2024

Woohoo 💃🏻 👏 . I’ve just had my 6 week check-up, after hip replacement surgery and my surgeon said I’m smashing it!! He was impressed that I’m doing 3km walks and gave me approval to move on:
✅ I get to drive again .. yeah👍
✅ I can sleep on my side again .. yes!😴
✅ I can “slowly” increase distance and build up to small hills .. bring it on 🏔️

07/06/2024

Beautiful “fresh” walk on the Strand this morning. I’m sure these paddle boarders were enjoy the sunrise and hoping not to fall in.

01/06/2024

The wonderful team at TREK FOR LIFE AOTEAROA have been hard at work, since we got back from our March trek in NZ. They barely have any time off between ending one trek and starting work on the planning and preparations for the next year’s trek. We know that they will be working all year on putting the next route together and planning for everything we will need.

These wonderful people are truly dedicated to providing an amazing experience for all trekkers … the horse riders, the mountain bikers and the walkers. And, the huge number of people that return year after year to take part in the trek, are evidence that TFLA are truly achieving that amazing experience.

The TFLA team are all volunteers, giving up a huge amount of their time to put all this together. And, I for one am very grateful to them🙏💜

If there are any Townsville walkers interested in doing this trek next March, please contact me and I can tell you all about it😊
Sally Flair Holly Nadene Ellison Karen Tobeck Ann Hewitt Trek for Life Aotearoa/NZ Charitable Trust

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/NQt4hEDVN7JN7vSu/?

Guess what ?!!! It’s the 1st of June which calls for a “save the date” for stage 5, 2025!!!

Regos will open 1st July!!! The countdown is on and the work behind the scenes is already in full swing!

As we are in early stages *route is subject to change*

Never heard of Trek for Life ?! But you love walking, biking or horse riding while discovering NZ and giving back to the communities we travel through - check out our website https://www.trekforlife.org.nz

Also don’t forget this years photos are live and ready for purchase 💕✔️

26/05/2024

It’s just over 4 weeks since my Hip Replacement surgery and my recovery is progressing really well. My physio is very impressed and she says I’m ahead of plan. So, I’m really happy with that 🤗

But, she did rein me in about 10 days ago, when she told me to reduce the distance of my walks from 2km back down to 1km. She told me I had to concentrate on “improving the style of my gait, to get rid of my limp”🤦🏻‍♀️. So, that’s what I’ve been working on for the past few weeks.

I’ve also started having some massage therapy that concentrates on the fascia to optimise the flow and glide of muscles and therefore movement. I found I needed this because the more intense work of improving my gait was causing issues and pain on the inside of my thigh, abductor muscle, down to the knee and under the knee cap. The massage therapy has helped heaps to relive this issue👍

I am now walking around indoors freely, with no crutch and almost no limp at all 😃
However, going up and down the 20 steps to our front door and walking around outdoors, I have still been taking one crutch with me but it is really just a “security blanket” type of thing now. Just in case I overdo it, or get on uneven ground like the grass or wobbly footpaths.

Next week my aim is to drop that outside crutch all together. And then to work back up to 2km walks before I see the surgeon for my 6 week post surgery check up. Hopefully, he will then give me the all clear and I can get rid of these god damn awful compression stockings and have the freedom to drive again🤞

07/05/2024

2kms ✅
I’m slowly increasing the distance of my walks and this morning I ticked off a 2km walk along the Strand. It’s only 2 weeks since my hip replacement, so I’m really pleased with that.

I’m still on 2 crutches when I’m out and about but managing mainly on just one crutch at home. Now I have to build my confidence to drop off the 2nd crutch when I’m outdoors.

And, today I went for my post op check up, expecting get the dressing off and stitches out. Only to find there are no stitches 🤷🏻‍♀️ … or at least none I can see. They’re all internal stitches done up like a zip, so I just have a thin line and the internal stitches dissolve. That’s a bonus! 👏

03/05/2024

Yee-haw … 1.6km ✅

I came home from hospital on Sunday and have been getting used to life on crutches around the home. Eddie is surpassing himself in his ability to be a carer and Lexi🐕 is almost glued to my side. She gave me the most incredible welcome home 💜 and now she’s making sure that I don’t disappear again🤣

Yesterday I had my first session with my normal physio (outside of hospital sessions) and she was impressed that I was ahead of what she expected, so she gave me new exercises to move forward with.

Today, I took my first walk on the Strand. It was extremely slow, on two crutches, being very careful not to stumble and trip. I was aiming for 1/2km and before I knew it, I clocked up 1.6km 🏃🏻‍♀️👣 💃🏻 💪🤪 WOOHOO I’m so pleased with myself!! And it’s only 11 days post surgery, on my new hip.
Once I got home, it was drugs and ice but, so far, I’m feeling pretty good 😊
Sally Flair Holly Nadene Ellison Louise Tinniswood

25/04/2024

My shiny new hip is settling in well and my mobility is improving. The pain has eased a fair bit, but getting in and out of bed is still a killer😣

Day 1, I was on a wheelie walker but only allowed to move within the confines of my room.
Day 2, I was promoted to crutches and allowed to walk the distance of 2 rooms beside mine.
Day 3, I walked on crutches a little further and I did the training stairs … woohoo 🎉
Only 4 stairs but it’s a start! Getting the stairs right is absolutely necessary because there are 18 stairs up to our front door 😧

So, all has been going well and I was “on track” to get released tomorrow. That is until a problem developed yesterday arvo. I started having crazy little spasms all over my body, plus micro blackouts and quite a lot of dizziness 😵‍💫 🥴 Not so good!

My surgeon tells me it’s a bad flare up of my Menieres Disease, that can be caused as a side effect of surgery & anaesthetic. So this means that I now have to be hooked up to a cannula and fed steroids for another 3 days🤦🏻‍♀️ to settle the Menieres down. Bu**er!!

23/04/2024

I now have a brand new “very expensive” shining hip made of titanium niobium alloy and ceramic.
How good is that!!
The sound of those materials already has me feeling like superwoman … ready to pounce out of bed and power up Castle Hill. Problem is I’m legless, or at least I feel legless. No sensation from my waist down since I woke up about 4 hours ago.

I’m feeling really good … maybe because the anaesthetic blocker that has me legless hasn’t worn off yet🤣

I’m slowly starting to get some feeling creeping back into my legs. So, I guess I’ll soon find out if the new hip is actually painful 😥
Sally Flair Holly Nadene Ellison Louise Tinniswood Jaie Wilson

18/04/2024

Last night my wonderful friend, Nadene Ellison, read my news that my “good” hip is not actually good at all. She gave me a shake up and told me to put on my big girl pants and meet her at 6.00am for a stroll along the Strand.
Thanks so much Nadene🙏. I really needed to spend 90 minutes of crazy talk and hilarious laughter with you.
Did we walk? So much laughing I can’t remember🤣

17/04/2024

Since I got back from NZ I’ve been focused on getting ready for the surgery to replace my right hip, which is happening next Tuesday. This past two weeks has been a flurry of pre-surgery appointments for extra last minute X-rays, CT scan and several pathology tests, with the final blood tests to be done tomorrow.

I’ve been keeping as active as possible with daily walks alternating with about 3km on 4 days and about 1.5km on the other 3 days. Just trying to keep mobile really, no hills because I can’t do them🤦🏻‍♀️

Then today, I got hit by a slam dunk and found out I probably need my left hip replaced as well🤦🏻‍♀️. Not really what I needed to hear at this stage … but in all honesty, it was what I suspected. Just didn’t need to hear the actual words!!

Just before going to NZ I asked the surgeon to do an MRI on my “good” left hip because it was starting to feel as painful as my “bad” right hip. Today I saw him to get the results and the MRI shows it also has bad arthritis degeneration and probably needs to be replaced sooner rather than later 😩

Of course this is bad news because I need strength in the left hip to help with my recovery and rehab on my right hip 😩

So my surgeon has called in a favour with his radiologist mate, to squeeze me in for an Ultra Sound guided Cortisone injection between the bones of the left hip, to be done this Saturday. If this works, it will give me relief and temporary strength in that hip, so that I can work on my post surgery rehab.

Fingers crossed the cortisone works and lasts 4-6 weeks to get me through my rehab period. I did have the same injection in the right hip 4 months ago and it only gave me 2 weeks relief. I will need this one to last longer than that!

Once I’m recovered from the right hip, we will review what to do about the left one … possibly another replacement later in the year🤦🏻‍♀️

Honestly I’m starting to feel like a broken down old mare, that needs to be taken out to the paddock and shot. Definitely not feeling like a Wild Woman on a Walkabout 🤷🏻‍♀️

02/04/2024

Our final day with Trek for Life Aotearoa/NZ Charitable Trust
and after the -3° last night, we woke to a frozen tent surrounded by frozen white and crunchy grass.

This has been our seventh trek in NZ and one of the coldest.
Wild Women Walkabout joined this progressive trek through NZ with Great New Zealand Trek, doing 4 treks with them. We have continued on with TFLA, for our last three adventures. Sometimes Sally and I have come on our own, as we did this year, other times we have brought along friends and members of WWW.

We have usually been walkers on the trek but this year we came along as volunteers. The opportunity see the trek from another perspective, as the Lunch Stop Girls, has been amazing. We have really enjoyed helping all the trekkers as they come into the Lunch Stop and also to help out where we could when back in camp. It was full on and could get hectic but we had great fun in our roles.

Final day is always a bit frantic and emotional as we are rushing to pack up our bags quickly, so we can say goodbye to as many friends as possible, before our ride is ready to go.

This year Sally has gone on to Rotorua and Napier to see relatives and I headed to Auckland for an extra day.

There’s was a bit of confusion about what time TFLA were going to be able to transport me back to Auckland airport. I really needed to get there by early Sunday arvo to see my brother and there was too much uncertainty for a departure time/vehicle/driver for my sense of being organised. So a very lovely walker, Carol, offered me a lift with her a her friend Liz. They were heading north of Auckland and Carol was happy to make a small detour to the airport.

Sounded perfect👍 and we set off. Google maps told me the drive to Auckland would be about 3.5 hours, however it all turned pear shaped when we couldn’t get Carols very new Tesla Electric Vehicle (EV) to charge. It’s a very long story of our adventures and frustration but basically many of the EV chargers we found were out of action and others wouldn’t connect to us. They all seem to belong to different companies and poor Carol had to keep downloading the appropriate app before she could contact their helplines for assistance. A very kind/interesting/strange man took us back to his house near the National Park and we drip fed some charge over a couple of hours and then we moved on. Eventually we got stuck in Otorohanga, around 8.00 or 9.00pm, still with only about 16% charge and we decided we would just have to stay at the Kiwi Camp and trickle feed some power by plugging into our cabin.

By this stage Carol had searched on the car computer and found EV’s don’t like the cold and often won’t charge when they have been too cold. The -3° freeze the night before must have frozen the battery🤷🏻‍♀️

The overnight trickle gave us enough power to get to Ruakara, where Carol knew there was a Tesla fast charger.
We charged up to 100% in about 30 minutes … yah 👏 💃🏻 🚗 and headed to Auckland airport. We got there around 2.00pm … 29 hours to travel 269kms🤦🏻‍♀️

My brother had come down from Kerikeri to spend Sunday afternoon and Monday morning with me. However, I missed seeing him because I didn’t get to Auckland before he had to return home. I also lost a nights pre-paid accommodation at the Novotel Hotel at the airport … $347🤦🏻‍♀️

And, in the quick drop off at the airport, we quickly got my bags out of the boot while traffic wardens were yelling at us to move on. Quick hugs goodbye and Carol and Liz jumped in the car and they were gone. I then realised my backpack was still on the car seat🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️.

I was in a mad panic trying to figure out how to contact them. Eventually I got their phone numbers from TFLA but by that time they had arrived at Liz’s home in Orewa. So, Liz is now posting it to me.

I’m typing this as I sit in the Qantas Club at Brisbane airport and my flight has been delayed an hour … I hope that’s the only delay and that the plane isn’t an EP (Electric Plane)🤣
Sally Flair Holly
Ann Hewitt
WWW

01/04/2024

Saturday: Day 6 Of Trekking – Ongarue to Taumarunui:
The last day of trekking and finally a sunny day. The trekkers loved it. They had perfect conditions and everyone was looking forward to our final party night.

Our fancy dress theme for the party was “Circus”. We had a great band but the temperature was dropping quickly so Sally and I only stayed till about 11.00pm.

We were totally freezing!! Went to bed dressed in merino base layer, PJs and a fleece jacket, merino beanie and gloves but I was still shivering. Definitely not nice when we both had to get up around 2.00 for a toilet visit. More layers added to get us to the toilet truck and the temperature was 2°. Towards dawn it got down to -3°!! 🥶
Sally Flair Holly
Ann Hewitt
WWW

01/04/2024

Friday: Day 5 Of Trekking –Mapui – Ongarue:

Muddy, muddy, muddy! We arrived into a wet camp site and had more rain during the night. The temperature got down to 3°🥶

This morning several vehicles got stuck. We had our van pushed off a muddy track by three burly lads. Then one of the volunteer blokes, Crocker, jumped in and gunned it straight for the gates, slipping and sliding all ways and he was laying on his horn to chase horse riders out of his pathway. He did a great job and got lots of cheers.

A hard day for the trekkers who were out in several rain storms, including hail😱
Sally Flair Holly
Ann Hewitt
WWW

30/03/2024

Wednesday: Rest day - Relax and recover in Piopio

Today was our rest day so we stayed in the same camp for another day at Piopio.

Sally and I spent most of the day running the van on shuttles between camp to Piopio and then on to Te Kuiti. I think we did about 5 laps. Our friend Jan did a couple of those laps to give us some down time in Te Kuiti. We took our laundry to Aunties Laundromat, where we met the owner, Dona, who very kindly told us to leave our laundry and she would transfer it into driers when it was washed. We told her we had made an appointment at a local hairdresser to have our hair shampooed and blow dried … as you do on a day off from trek duties🤣. We didn’t know where the hairdresser was and Donna also kindly offered to drive us there because it was quite a long walk … such a lovely lady and she’s an Aussie, with a farm in Victoria, but living in NZ running her laundromat.

Heaps of other trekkers also took advantage of using the laundromat, they had a constant stream of us coming in. But, I’m pretty sure Sally and I were the only ones who had the luxury of a hair treatment.

30/03/2024

Hi folks,
We’ve had a crazy, fun filled and hectic few days of looking after everyone by driving the lunch van to the half way stop. We’re towing two porta loos and taking equipment to set up a refreshment and toilet stop around about the 1/2 way mark of each days trek. Although, due to access difficulties our stop is often more like the 1/4 way mark. We have gas burners to brew up hot water for tea and coffee. The hot drinks are a really welcome to cold hungry trekkers. They bring their own packed lunch but we have potato chips and chocolate bars which are also a great treat for them and we also bring camp chairs for them to have a rest on.

As well as us, the coffee van comes with us and they do a huge trade in “real” coffees and smoothies.

Our refreshment stop today is located within a state forest at a skid site, where the logs are brought to to be loaded up onto trucks. No logs waiting for load up today, so we have a nice clear skid site to spread out in.

Our days have been as follows:

Tuesday: Day 3 Of Trekking – Mairoa to Piopio:
We arrived to our new camp on the ridge of a hill. In the photo of the side of the marquee … follow the line of the marquee and tents to the end, that’s our tent at the very end😊. That’s where we were when the storm hit (see previous post).

The weather has progressively gotten colder and wetter, so we have upgraded our daily ensemble. See photos: Shoes are covered in Shoe Condoms to keep them dry and mud free. Legs are covered in leggings and rain pants. Body has a long sleeved merino, WWW tee shirt, puffer jacket and rain jacket over all that with a merino buff around my neck and it stretches up over my head when needed. I suspect gloves and beanie are to be added soon.

Tonight was “Fancy/Funky Shirt” night and we had a band come to camp, so it was party night. It was also freezing!! Sally and I participated with the Fancy/Funky shirts … under puffer jackets🤣 but we didn’t stay long for the party because it was to bloody cold🥶

26/03/2024

Monday: Day 2 Of Trekking – Hauturu to Mairoa:

I’m pretty sure our trek numbers this year are:
- 120 Horse riders (includes around 30 hired horses)
- 30 Marshals on horseback or quad bikes
- 15 Walkers
- 15 Mountain Bike riders.
- 30 Other Volunteers

Yesterday the weather started outside with sunny skies, but by the end of the day the rain had settled in and I got to test out my hot PINK shoe condoms👍🤣

There were some trekking accidents during the day, including, our friend
Hannah, who was thrown from her horse that got spooked and decided to do a heap of bucking whilst going downhill. She managed to stay on until about the fourth buck. She has some ligament damage to her leg and she’s hoping that with some rest for the next day or so, she may be able to continue the Trek after our rest day on Wednesday. She was checked out by the medic and her horse was checked out by the vet👍

Another lady was also thrown from her horse that did some wild bucking and she suffered an impact to the head. Later in the day, the medic decided that she should be taken to a hospital. So her husband drove her off to Hamilton hospital, and they didn’t get back until 2 am in the morning with the verdict that she had a slight concussion and needed a couple of days rest.

Back at camp, the rain really settled in and got quite stormy during muster and dinner, with marshals having to lift the marquee roof with poles to push off the collected rain water. Sally and I ate dinner and basically went straight back to our tent because we were concerned about the weather conditions and we wanted to dodge the rain. We made our dash between rain squalls and got into the tent just as a storm hit!! ⛺️ ⛈️💨

We found our sleeping bags & pillows were already wet, because they had been up against the tent wall that had been getting pounded by rain. We had to grin and bear it, so climbed into sleeping bags that felt wet on the outside but were surprisingly dry inside.

We were hit by a couple of fierce storms during the night and I really think it was the weight of our suitcases and us on the stretches that managed to keep our small tent down because by God, it was blowing its guts out and we were positioned high on a hilltop coping the weather full blast. We managed to get a half decent sleep and somehow we were lucky enough to both wake up at the same time, around 2 am, when there was no rain at all and we got to the toilets and back to our tent before the rain started against.

Very chilly, very wet, but still heaps of fun. We are loving it and we lay in our camp stretches, listening to the storm while talking about stories from since we were teenagers and having a good old laugh. Love Trek Life with Sally Flair Holly💜

25/03/2024

Day One was arrival day and settle into camp life. Yesterday, day two, was the start of trekking but no reception to send messages and do a post.
Sunday: Day 1 Of Trekking – Te Rauamoa to Hauturu - 30 kms.
We woke to a much nicer day … no rain or mist 😊 It was still a bit cool when Sally and I got up at 5.30 but once the sun came out and the grass dried out, it became a lovely day.

It was our first day in charge of the lunch stop & transport van. So we had a couple of crash courses throughout the day to keep things flowing smoothly. The most memorable being Sally turning the van around on a narrow farm gravel road and reversing the two porta loos, we were towing, up the bend in the road to complete the turn. Well done Sally👍 you did good. We also learnt the temperamental nature of ratchet straps when we had to secure the porta loos before driving off🤦🏻‍♀️

All in all a great day and we had around 150 Horses & riders, 15 walkers and 17 mountain bike riders come through the lunch/refreshment stop.

Everyone seemed really pleased that the two Aussie girls had come back for another trek and this year to be part of their support crew.

We spent the evening listening to good music, playing cards and watching the younger ones do line dancing❤️

23/03/2024

After a long day of travel yesterday, my night at the Novotel Hotel at Auckland airport was lovely. Delicious meal, good shower and heavenly bed for a really good sleep👍

Day one on Trek for Life Aotearoa/NZ Charitable Trust
has now started and all going to plan so far … except it’s raining and that’s definitely not in the plan!
I didn’t get to meet up with my bestie, Sally, until this morning because we had a big difference in flights last night and stayed at different hotels. It was so good seeing her again 💜 for our annual catch up and we’re all excited for the coming 9 days on TFLA.

We met at the domestic airport, where our designated driver, Graham, was coming in on a morning flight from Christchurch. We weren’t sure who he was but he recognised us and then we remembered him from last year. He’s the husband of one of the horse riders, Adele, and he’s going as a support person for Adele and volunteer truck driver.

Our first job was to get an Uber to Manakau, where we picked up a camper van that Graham is driving to our base camp at Kawhia. I think the van will be used by Lonnie (organiser) as her vehicle and camp office.

Grahams wife, Adele, is already at camp, she came up from Christchurch a few days ago and has been involved in moving some horses to camp.

It’s fairly obvious the wet weather is here to stay, today at least. Camping in the rain … it won’t be as comfortable and cosy as the Novotel Hotel last night🤦🏻‍♀️ but we are Wild Women Walkabout … so we WILL cope☔️ ⛺️ 👍
In fact we’ll be in luxury compared the Graham & Adele who are sleeping in swags 😢

Arrived at camp .. it’s all happening and with so much hugging going on, as we meet up with old friends, we can hardly feel the cold … not!

Photos : Of the marquee / party central👍 Horses fading into the mist. And, yes somewhere over there are a lot of tents … just see them🤦🏻‍♀️🤣
Ann Hewitt
Sally Flair Holly
WWW

21/03/2024

WOW that was a hectic transfer from Brisbane domestic to International . Way too close for my liking. I was still in a queue in the departure area when the assistants were calling my flight and shortcutting people through the maze. They had to delay the departure to get everyone to the plane! On board now and time to relax. Trek for Life Aotearoa/NZ Charitable Trust here I come🤪

17/03/2024

All packed and ready to go🤪

I know, I know … I don’t fly out until Friday … but whenever I’m heading over the “Ditch” to Trek for Life Aotearoa/NZ Charitable Trust
the anticipation and excitement just takes control of me😂

Now that I’m organised, I have the rest of the week to pass out helpful advice … or maybe unhelpful advice🤣 to Sally Flair Holly , while she gets organised and packed.

16/03/2024

It turned out to be a beautiful morning for a walk on the Strand today. When I woke up, it was raining and I nearly bailed out, but decided it was going to clear🤞

Lexi 🐕 and I met Nadene Ellison
on the Strand near CBar for our walk to start at 6:30. By that time the rain had stopped, the beach was looking beautiful and it seemed the rain had moved over to Magnetic Island.

I am protecting my dodgy hip, because I’m off to New Zealand next Friday 😆, to join the Trek for Life Aotearoa/NZ Charitable Trust
as a volunteer … not a walker this year.

So, we just did a slow flat walk from CBar to the Rock Pool, turned around and did the full length of the Strand to Sir Leslie Theiss Dr and then back to CBar. A total of 5.68 km which was plenty for me as my hip was telling me enough is enough 🤪

I’ll do another couple of short walks through the week, but this is my last walk with my training buddy, Nadene. Thanks for joining me this morning Nadene and for being my support/training buddy. I really wish you were coming on the TFLA with Sally Flair Holly
and me. We’ll share lots of photos to make you jealous🤪
WWW /> Ann Hewitt
Nadene Ellison